Open AccessLinking Maternal Depression to Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms: Transmission of Cognitive Vulnerabilities
Author(s) -
Erin E. Dunning,
Brae Anne McArthur,
Lyn Y. Abramson,
Lauren B. Alloy
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of youth and adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.883
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1573-6601
pISSN - 0047-2891
DOI - 10.1007/s10964-020-01342-7
Subject(s) - psychology , psychopathology , anxiety , depression (economics) , cognition , clinical psychology , offspring , health psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , pregnancy , public health , medicine , genetics , nursing , biology , economics , macroeconomics
The mechanisms of the well-documented relationship between maternal depression and offspring psychopathology are not yet fully understood. Building upon cognitive theories of depression and the modeling hypothesis, path analyses tested whether maternal depression history predicted adolescent internalizing symptoms via the transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities within a sample of 635 adolescents (M age = 13.1 years, range = 11.2-17.2 years; 53% female; 48% African American/Black) and their primary female caregivers. Maternal depression history did not directly predict adolescent symptoms. Two significant indirect effects were found; maternal depression history was associated with maternal negative cognitive style, which predicted greater adolescent negative generalization, which, in turn, predicted adolescents' greater depressive and anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that the transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities may link maternal depression and offspring internalizing psychopathology.